James Madison University
Office of Institutional Research

Research Notes

Volume 15,
Number 3

May, 2001

Faculty Salaries of JMU's Peer Group, 2000-01

In 1986 the Virginia General Assembly
approved a policy to enhance the competitive position of higher
education institutions in Virginia by raising the average faculty
salary of each publicly supported higher education institution to
the 60th percentile of a group of peer institutions outside of
Virginia. Since the 1980's JMU has had three faculty salary peer
groups, the most recent one being selected in 1997. The standard source of
data on faculty salaries is the AAUP salary survey that is completed
each year in the fall and published the following spring.

When the peer groups were selected in
1986 in cooperation with institutional representatives JMU ranked
22nd out of 25 peer institutions. Due to the commitment by the
Commonwealth significant monies were designated by the General
Assembly between 1986 and 1990 to raise the average salaries. Between 1985-86 and 1989-90, the
average JMU salary increased from $29,682 to $42,618, an increase of
43.6 percent. The state budget crisis in the early 1990's
resulted in JMU's average salary rank slipping from 7th in 1989-90
to 9th in 1996-97.

In the spring of 1997 institutional
representatives met at SCHEV to select a new peer group that better
reflected the changes that have occurred at JMU since the 1980's.
The resulting peer group is a far more competitive list of institutions than the 1986
group. Institutions now considered peers include such well-known
institutions as the University of Notre Dame, the University of
Delaware, Ohio University, SUNY-Binghamton, the University of Rhode
Island, Providence College, and Texas Christian
University.

These new peer institutions as a whole
have a much higher faculty salary average than the 1986 group. In
1995-96 JMU's average salary was within $1,000 of the 60th
percentile which means that the institution was not well positioned
for needed salary increases even though the quality of JMU and its
national reputation had improved markedly since 1986. The situation
with this new peer group is far different. As can be seen in table
below, JMU is $3,100 below the 60th percentile, an improvement from $4,500
four years ago. However, JMU continues to be ranked 12th among its peer institutions.

Additional detail on the changes in
JMU's faculty salary averages since 1993-94 can be viewed in the
following link.
Since 1993-94 only three institutions have received larger
percentage increases than JMU (30 percent). Additional salary
increases that will move JMU closer to the 60th percentile are dependent upon the actions of the
General Assembly. Given the current budget impasse in Richmond,
JMU's relative position is likely to worsen for 2001-02.